When it comes to kitchen countertops, these days stone is king. Whether one is remodeling an older home or building a new one, odds are stone countertops will be strongly considered.
Among quartz products, Israel’s Caesarstone is one of the oldest and most popular manufacturers.
Caesarstone Sdot-Yam was a pioneer in the use of quartz to create a new surfacing product. Today, its products are used as kitchen countertops, vanity tops, floor tiles and sinks.
“Quartz is one of the strongest minerals on earth after diamonds, topaz and sapphires,” says Caesarstone CEO Yos Shiran. “In the combination that it appears in Caesarstone products — at least 90 percent quartz and some 10 percent binder products — the result is highly scratch-resistant, doesn’t crack and doesn’t stain.”
The quartz used in Caesarstone is mined in Brazil, India or Turkey and then shipped to Israel for production. There are two plants (one at Kibbutz Sdot-Yam near Caesaria, the other in the Bar Lev industrial zone near the Galilee), and four production lines in Israel, with a fifth line being established.
Shiran says the secret to creating such a beautiful look lies in the Israeli-innovated process of combining the hard mineral with high-quality polymer resins and pigments and then compacting it under intense vibration, vacuum and pressure into dense nonporous slabs.
“In terms of the process, the quartz is mined and crushed into different-size fractions [grains] at the source and then shipped to Israel,” says Shiran. “All production is done in Israel. We take the crushed quartz, mix it with binders, press it at high pressures, send to a curing process and then to polishing.”
From Israel, the finished slabs are shipped to customers in 45 countries around the world.
Caesarstone revolutionized the industry 25 years ago, though the product did not enjoy widespread popularity until more recently.
In the mid-1980s, Kibbutz Sdot-Yam sent the CEO of its faltering terrazzo tile factory to find the “next big thing” in flooring material. He found an Italian company that produced stone surfaces using polyester to bind ground bits of stone. After production, the stone became dense and impermeable.
Upon his return to the kibbutz, he shared his ideas and experience with residents of the then-fishing and farming community, and conceived the idea of using crushed quartz combined with polymer resins and pigments for a surfacing product.
“It really was a startup at the time. The idea to take quartz and work with it in this method was revolutionary,” says Shiran.
From the beginning, the kibbutz origin of the product assured it remained sustainable.
“The environment is very important to Caesarstone,” says Shiran, adding that ecological responsibility is a significant factor in providing a quality product.
Caesarstone Sdot-Yam was the first quartz manufacturing company to receive the ISO 14001 certification recognizing competence in environmental management and performance. Caesarstone products meet the American Greenguard exacting standards, and the company has been credited by the National Sanitation Foundation for having surfaces safe enough for use in laboratories, health care facilities and food-preparation environments.
You could eat straight off the countertop and not worry about lead poisoning or other radioactive contaminants, Shiran says.
He notes that the company recycles 97 percent of the water used in manufacturing, collects dust from shipping, handling, production and processing, and tries to save as much energy as possible. “Overall, it’s very important to us to preserve all aspects of the environment,” says Shiran.
The Caesarstone factory started operations in 1987, but the first few years were rough and the operation nearly went bankrupt. In 2006, the private equity firm Tene Investment Funds injected $25 million into Caesarstone in exchange for a 21.7 percent stake in the company. That propelled Caesarstone to the leading position it holds in the market today.
“The success of the company started with the people from the kibbutz and brought it to where it is,” says Shiran. “The private equity in 2006 contributed a lot in all business aspects.”
Though Caesarstone was the world’s first engineered quartz, Sdot-Yam members never patented the product, and today competitors abound.
“Competitors came into the game, but it’s like any other retail company — Nike, Lexus — everybody makes what they do. The original brand is important and it’s about innovation and the actual product and not just copying the process,” Shiran says.
Caesarstone employs approximately 500 people in Israel — including about 75 kibbutz members — and some 400 others around the world. Its U.S. arm is headquartered in Southern California.
The future, Shiran believes, includes evolving the company’s products and educating new markets about the quartz’s characteristics, which he cites as “low maintenance, low total cost of ownership, high longevity.”
Shiran says quartz is the fastest-growing countertop material in North America.
“Quartz penetration in Israel is 80 percent. In Spain, there’s 72 percent penetration and in Australia, there’s 32 percent penetration,” says Shiran. “In the U.S., there’s only around 7 percent penetration and in Canada 10 percent. If the entire world would be like Israel in terms of using engineered quartz, there’s a lot of room for growth.”